Frequently Asked Questions
Straightforward thyroid answers so you can feel like yourself again.
How does poor diet cause high cholesterol?
A poor diet pushes your body to make and store more cholesterol than it can safely handle. When you eat a lot of sugar, white flour, fried foods, and processed snacks, your liver turns the extra calories into fats that circulate in your blood. Over time, this raises “bad” LDL cholesterol and triglycerides while lowering “good” HDL cholesterol. A diet low in fiber makes things worse, because there is less fiber to help carry cholesterol out of the body through the digestive tract.
What are other factors outside of diet that can cause high cholesterol?
Diet is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to high cholesterol. Genetics can program your liver to make more cholesterol, so levels run high even when your lifestyle is pretty solid. Lack of exercise, excess weight, chronic stress, and poor sleep all change how your body handles fats and often drive “bad” cholesterol up. Certain medical conditions (like low thyroid or diabetes) and medications can also raise cholesterol, which is why a full evaluation is so important.
Can high cholesterol be caused by insulin resistance?
Yes. Insulin resistance and high cholesterol commonly travel together as part of the same metabolic problem. When your cells stop responding well to insulin, your body compensates by making more insulin and more fat particles in the blood. This often shows up as high triglycerides, low “good” HDL, and smaller, denser “bad” LDL particles that are more damaging to arteries. In other words, insulin resistance doesn’t just raise blood sugar — it also drives the kind of cholesterol pattern that increases heart and stroke risk.
Can my gut health play a role in high cholesterol?
Yes. Your gut is one of the main exit routes for extra cholesterol leaving the body. The liver packages cholesterol into bile, sends it into the intestines, and ideally that bile is bound to fiber and moved out in your stool. When gut bacteria are out of balance, there is inflammation, infection, constipation, or very low fiber, more of that cholesterol can be reabsorbed back into the bloodstream instead of eliminated. In this way, an unhealthy gut can quietly keep cholesterol levels higher than they should be, even if the rest of your lifestyle looks good.
Can my liver play a role in my cholesterol levels?
Yes. Your liver is the main control center for making, packaging, and clearing cholesterol from your bloodstream. When the liver is healthy, it can turn extra cholesterol into bile, ship it into the gut, and help you remove it in your stool so numbers stay in a safe range. If the liver is fatty, inflamed, overloaded with toxins, or under-functioning, it cannot process fats and cholesterol efficiently. That slowdown means more cholesterol and triglycerides stay circulating in the blood, which pushes your lab numbers up and increases long-term heart and metabolic risk.
Why can’t I just take a statin to keep my cholesterol at a good level?
Serious side effects from statin therapy include severe muscle damage; muscle pain, weakness and cramping; CoQ10 depletion leading to heart damage, brain fog, memory loss, confusion, and reductions in global cognition, reasoning and processing speed; increased risk of diabetes; reduced vitamin K2 production necessary to prevent artery calcification; and finally increased risk of cataracts. Considering there is an extremely effective, all-natural alternative to statins - this medication might not be the best option to manage cholesterol levels.